52 History Supplement

# ON LIMPETS, OR LEPADES

Rondeletius named certain shells *Patellae* because they are wide and shaped like a dining dish, which they closely resemble. In his *Glossaries*, Galen translates the term *Lepades* (as they were called by Hippocrates) as "shells that cling to rocks." This is not without reason, as we find in Aristotle that the *Lepas* is *monothyron*—that is, a univalve. According to Aristotelian doctrine, the univalve genus consists of those creatures that adhere to rocks with the shell covering their back.

Rondeletius identified two distinct types of these limpets: one simply called the *Lepas*, and the other called the *Lepas agria*, also known as the "Sea Ear" (*Auris marina*). They differ in form, primarily because the *Lepas* has its mouth on the upper side and its excretory vent on the lower side opposite the mouth, while the Sea Ear has these openings within the shell itself. It acquired the name "Ear" from its shape, as it quite beautifully resembles a human ear, as may be seen in the illustrations provided in the third book of Ulisse Aldrovandi’s *On Testaceans*. However, since the limpets were depicted there without their soft parts, I have chosen to present here an illustration of the Sea Ear shown with its flesh.

A Sea Ear with its flesh.